Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-08-27


mention.
Zone person has been in my mind all
the afternoon. I had not thought of
him before in long time, and now I
cannot help but remember"
Her friend Strengthened from lam
guild attitude to one of interest.
"You mean that man who acted 30
awfully last summer" she asked.
Miss Morrison replied slowly. A
sudden bright color glowed in her face
and went away again At the same
moment she seemed to have felt a
nervous closing of the throat.
I mean the man who injured me.
"And you think he is in trouble, and
you would 60 to him?"
Adelaide turned and gazed out of the
window. In the street below a junk.
carts noisy bells were jangling.
Adelaide's clear profile scarcely stirred.
II should hope" she answered
quickly, II should hope that I would
go to amy one in trouble, any one whom
I could help.
Nina grew animated.
II WISH" she said, clasping her hands
about her knees and leaning forward,
eagerly, II wish you would tell me the
whole affair from first to last. You
never have done so, and only know
that he acted outrageously.
Adelaide started from her seat,
crossed the room and returned.
"There is nothing much to tell. 1t
was trust betrayed &C.
tions. We were engaged to be married
this summer. I had entrusted pro-
perry to his management. He was
thoughtless, criminally thoughtless.
He tried to speculate, and lost, and in
volved me terribly, and finally resorted
to falsehoods to screen himself. That
is all. He was quite handsome-verv
fascinating he was weak. Please
don't ask me any more"
20 Adelaide! It's SO very-roman-
tic!"
"It was very TERRIBLE" said Miss
Morrison, "very terrible. But
never mind. I have tried to forget.
Let it pass. TWAS bitterer injury than
you could dream of. She stood up
and paced the room. II wish you
would take me to see your dressmaker,"
she said presently. "a widow with
many children, no doubt.
widow? Yes; but only one child
little lame boy. Well go the first Of
the week."
no." said Adelaide, impatiently,
"now, let us not put it off.
"But, my dear, I will if you insist.
Well go this evening after dinner"
In the afterglow of the same sunset
through which Adelaide Morrison had
gone home, man was staggering
blindly across another section of the
town. His face was toward the East,
and his uncertain footsteps bore him
through streets of sin and squalor.
Sometimes he paused and tottered as if
ready to sink to the ground then again
he seemed to pluck new strength from
despair. His bloodshot eyes had the
look of fever. His dishevelled hair had
here and there streak of gray. Yet
he was not old, save with present
misery. His face was unshaven, and
he breathed with parched lips.
AS the afterglow turned to purple |
haze he struggled at last into neigh.
borhood near the eastern edge of the
great island-a neighborhood where |
only at intervals one saw house thai
was not tenement; where children
swarmed upon the pavement anc
shrieked aloud their pitiful emotions
The neighborhood of the slaves of the
world. Into this neighborhood the
man staggered to seek one door OF
many and to drag himself step by STEP
up barren stairways to a garnet YET
more barren. Friendless, penniless,
hopeless! Run to the end of his rope.
"Only to de-" he moaned, as he fell
across his miserable bed. Where were
bis former friends, the gay, the
careless? What would they do for him
Who would stretch out hand to save
him? /
And then one word came huskily
from his parched throad-the name o,
q woman-a soft, sweet name!
He lay there alone and unsuc'
cored, and darkness closed arount
him. By and by, long time after |
some one pushed the door ajar
peered shyiy into the gloom, ane
turned away, with llSnt, irregular IOOG |
fall. The little, lame child of a neigh |
Dor had been the only one to think O.
care.
Miss Morrison and her friend Nina, |
were late in calling upon the dress |
maker. The poor woman was eating
her supper by lamplight in the swift |
and greedy fashion of her half-starved.
oyerworked kind. Her child sat oppo-
site her-a wan little elf with jetty |
hair and unearthly eyes. He gazed
at Adelaide as though fasci- |
spoon dropped from his
hand, his cup of tea remained :un.
touched.
Miss Morrison spoke very gently:
@My dear, how old are you?"
Eight" said the child. Then, in |
strange continuation, and quite as If |
the artists dark, mild eyes had wrested |
the confidence from him, there's man
sick upstairs.
"a man that is sick, my dear ?" Miss